Aldols enamine catalysts

Type A enamine catalysts include simple amino acids, such as proline 6, and most of their derivatives (such as the tetrazole 44 and various sulfonamides, e.g. 45). They are typically used for aldol, Mannich, a-amination and a-oxygenation reactions - these are all reactions where the electrophile can readily be activated by hydrogen bonding (Scheme 12) [8, 9, 12, 46],... 

The delicateness of the aldol protocol has perhaps been one of the factors why enamine catalysis of the aldol reaction did not emerge nntil the 1970s. The Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction [30] (Scheme 16) was an important early example of an intramolecular enamine-catalyzed aldol reaction. However, it was not nntil 2000 when List, Barbas and Lemer demonstrated that the same reaction can also be performed in an intermolecular fashion, using proline as a simple enamine catalyst [26]. 

Very recently, Lin et al. reported a cascade aminoxylation/aza-Michael/aldol condensation reaction by combining two distinct secondary amine catalysts [23], The (Si-proline was nsed to serve as an enamine catalyst, while the Jprgensen-Hayashi catalyst was exploited to generate achiral imininm ion toward anncleophilic attack (Scheme 9.26). 

The detailed mechanism of this enantioselective transformation remains under investigation.178 It is known that the acidic carboxylic group is crucial, and the cyclization is believed to occur via the enamine derived from the catalyst and the exocyclic ketone. A computational study suggested that the proton transfer occurs through a TS very similar to that described for the proline-catalyzed aldol reaction (see page 132).179... 

Another advantage of this method is that no catalyst is needed for the addition reaction this means that the base-catalyzed polymerization of the electrophilic olefin (i.e., a,j8-unsaturated ketones, esters, etc.) is not normally a factor to contend with, as it is in the usual base-catalyzed reactions of the Michael typCi It also means that the carbonyl compound is not subject to aldol condensation which often is the predominant reaction in base-catalyzed reactions. An unsaturated aldehyde can be used only in a Michael addition reaction when the enamine method is employed. 

Momiyama and Yamamoto" have further expanded the utility of H-bond-mediated reactions catalyzing nitrosobenzene addition to enamines using TADDOL 38 or hydroxy acid 39 as catalysts. Remarkably, the judicious selection of H-bond-catalyst/enamine combination resulted in the formation of only A-addition compounds with TADDOL 38 (Scheme 11.14e), while acid 39 furnished exclusively O-nitroso aldol products (Scheme 11.14f). 

Momiyama and Yamamoto have recently demonstrated that acid cocatalysts can even influence the outcome of enamine-mediated reactions [63]. In their studies of the acid-catalyzed O- and A-nitroso aldol reaction, they found that the nature of the acid catalyst dictates the regioselectivity of the reaction between preformed enamine species A carboxylic acid catalyst promoted the 0-nitroso aldol reaction whereas a hydrogen bonding catalyst catalyzed the formation of an A-adduct, both in high enantioselectivities(Scheme 10). 

Typical starting materials, catalysts, and products of the enamine-catalyzed aldol reaction are summarized in Scheme 17. In proline-catalyzed aldol reactions, enantioselectivities are good to excellent with selected cyclic ketones, such as cyclohexanone and 4-thianone, but generally lower with acetone. Hindered aldehyde acceptors, such as isobutyraldehyde and pivalaldehyde, afford high enantioselectivities even with acetone. In general, the reactions are anti selective, but there are aheady a number of examples of syn selective enamine aldol processes [200, 201] (Schemes 17 and 18, see below). However, syn selective aldol reactions are still rare, especially with cychc ketones. 

Ketone donors bearing a-heteroatoms are particularly useful donors for the enamine-catalyzed aldol reactions (Scheme 18). Both anti and syn aldol products can be accessed in remarkably high enantioselectivities using either proline or proline-derived amide, sulfonamide, or peptide catalysts. The syn selective variant of this reaction was discovered by Barbas [179]. Very recently, Luo and Cheng have also described a syn selective variant with dihydroxyacetone donors [201], and the Barbas group has developed improved threonine-derived catalysts 71 (Scheme 18) for syn selective reactions with both protected and unprotected dihydroxyacetone [202]. 

Aldehydes bearing a-hetero substituents also typically afford anti products, and the general solution to syn selective a-heteroatom substituted aldehyde-aldehyde aldol processes via enamine catalysis also still remains to be discovered. Nevertheless, the anti process is remarkably useful because a variety of highly substituted aldehydes can be accessed in a single operation using only very inexpensive catalysts, such as proline 6 or the phenylalanine-derived imidazohdinone 46 (Scheme 21) [114, 116, 117, 119-121, 188]. 

Enamine nucleophiles react readily with soft conjugated electrophiles, such as a, 3-unsaturated carbonyl, nitro, and sulfonyl compounds [20-22], Both aldehydes and ketones can be used as donors (Schemes 27 and 28). These Michael-type reactions are highly useful for the construction of carbon skeletons and often the yields are very high. The problem, however, is the enantioselectivity of the process. Unlike the aldol and Mannich reactions, where even simple proline catalyst can effectively direct the addition to the C = O or C = N bond by its carboxylic acid moiety, in conjugate additions the charge develops further away from the catalyst (Scheme 26) ... 

Over the past eight years, enantioselective enamine catalysis has expanded in scope more rapidly than perhaps any other field of asymmetric catalysis. From a handful of examples within the realm of aldol catalysis known in the beginning of 2000, the field enamine catalysis now comprises more than 50 different reactions, nearly 1000 different catalysts, and more than 1000 examples Still, major challenges remain to be solved. 

This type of interesting phenomenon has also been observed in non-organometallic reactions. The Hajos-Wiechert intramolecular aldol reaction of the triketone to the bicyclic aldol exhibits a nonlinear relation between the enantiomeric purity of the (S)-proline catalyst and the en-antioselectivity (Scheme 44) (75). With the partially resolved amino acid, the cyclization affords the product in an ee lower than anticipated. The reaction occurring via an enamine intermediate again may be interpreted in terms of participation of two proline molecules in the productdetermining transition state. 

A range of proline derivatives have been employed as enamine-based organocatalysts of direct aldols in water, without organic co-solvent.111 Using the reaction of cyclohexanone with benzaldehydes as a test bed, lipophilic diamine (40) in the presence of TFA proved to be an excellent bifunctional catalyst system, giving performance up to 99/90/99% in terms of conversion/r/c/ee. Alkyl chains of (40) make an organic microphase likely. 

The formation of covalent substrate-catalyst adducts might occur, e.g., by single-step Lewis-acid-Lewis-base interaction or by multi-step reactions such as the formation of enamines from aldehydes and secondary amines. The catalysis of aldol reactions by formation of the donor enamine is a striking example of common mechanisms in enzymatic catalysis and organocatalysis - in class-I aldolases lysine provides the catalytically active amine group whereas typical organocatalysts for this purpose are secondary amines, the most simple being proline (Scheme 2.2). 

With regard to the mechanism of this new type of reaction, the Jorgensen group postulated enamine formation, by addition of the catalyst to the nitrone, followed by hydroxylamine elimination [132], Subsequent aldol-type reaction of this enamine with the carbonyl component and release of the proline catalyst by exchange... 

Zhong rationalized the enantioselectivity by proposing an enamine mechanism which proceeds via the chair transition state shown in Figure 7.1 [11]. In this transition state, the Si face of an E enamine formed from the aldehyde and the catalyst L-proline approaches the less-hindered oxygen atom of nitrosobenzene leading to the chiral product with (R) configuration. This mechanism is in accordance with the proposed reaction mechanism for the aldol reaction (see chapter 6.2). 

An enantioselective intermolecular Michael addition of aldehydes (138) to enones (139), catalysed by imidazolidinones (140), has been reported. Chemoselectivity (Michael addition versus aldol) can be controlled through judicious choice of hydrogen bond-donating co-catalysts. The optimal imidazolidinone-hydrogen bond donor pair affords Michael addition products in <90% ee. Furthermore, the enamine intermediate was isolated and characterized and its efficacy as a nucleophile in the observed Michael addition reactions was demonstrated.172... 

Reymond and Chen88 have investigated the same set of antibodies for their ability to catalyze bimolecular aldol condensation reactions. The antibodies were assayed individually at pH 8.0 for the formation of aldol 111 from aldehyde 109 and acetone. None catalyzed the direct reaction, but in the presence of amine 110 three anti-52a and three anti-52b antibodies showed modest activity. In analogy with natural type I aldolase enzymes, the reaction is believed to occur by formation of an enamine from acetone and the amine, followed by rate-determining condensation of the enamine with the aldehyde. As in the previous example, the catalyst, which was characterized in detail, is not very efficient in absolute terms ( cat = 3 x 10-6 s 1 for the anti-52b antibody 72D4), but it is approximately 600 times more effective than amine alone. Moreover, the reactions with the antibody are stereoselective The enamine adds only to the si face of the aldehyde to give... 

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